The Most Frequent Problems of Beginning Article Writers
And how to avoid them
In 2005, David Sumner, an outstanding journalism professor at Ball State, conducted a survey of magazine editors to discover what they considered to be the most frequent problems in the work of beginning writers.
More than 15 years later, the same problems continue to appear in online publications— so if you write for publication, this research might help you on a point or two.
Below, I’ve listed the 18 problems editors identified in Sumner’s study — with the most important first — followed by some suggestions on what to do if you think you might have one of these problems. Or if you are coaching someone whose writing has such problems.
The Most Frequent Problems of Beginning Article Writers and How to Avoid Them
- Not reading widely enough to distinguish between original and unoriginal ideas
Read widely. In particular, read enough about your topic to understand it. Wide reading will give you a sense of what your audience already knows .Then you will be able to judge what is new. This is not something you can pick up, on a new topic, after seeing an article somewhere.
Readers expect feature articles to contain depth. The first step in developing this depth is to read. Long articles. Studies. Books. — Listen to lectures.
Make the topic yours — then give it away to readers. Do Robin Hood writing: Learn from the information-rich, and write for the information-poor.
To do this well, you may need to specialize in a few areas that you have a natural inclination to study in depth.
If you can write an article without getting up from your desk, without interviewing anyone, and without reading any source material, you are either an established expert or a deluded beginner. — Don’t be that beginner.
2. Choosing an angle that’s too broad and poorly focused
Focus your article sharply. Zero in on the one thing you want readers to take away with them, and organize the article around it. It has to matter.
Realize that many articles operate on two levels —
- a literal level (how to change a tire), and
- a deeper, quieter level (how this helps empower women).
Focus the specific topic, and do so in a way that the deeper theme can emerge without your having to draw much attention to it. If you help readers find the deeper level, instead of hitting them over the head with it, they will experience a sense of discovery.
3. Writing articles that do too much “telling” and not enough “showing”
Show readers, don’t just tell about the topic. Give readers details for their imaginations to use in constructing the scenes in your article. But use just the few details that nail the scene.
Study how experienced authors do this. Most of all, avoid writing your opinions about the topic. Instead, write in a way that enriches the reader’s understanding and perceptions. Help readers form their own opinions and draw their own conclusions.
Help readers be active in developing what they think, instead of passive in receiving what you thought.
4. Conducting poor-quality or an insufficient number of interviews
Why interview anyone? With so many sources available on the internet and in books, why not just use those?
The answer to those questions is crucial, and it is this: Anything written down is already old. Events have moved on. Things have changed. Other voices have spoken. — So you need to interview people who continuously keep up with the topic, and who therefore know what is new now. If you can find an online forum where experts on a topic gather and discuss ongoing developments, this will give you frequent updates and possible sources to contact. Just remember that everybody is already too busy.
Interviewing is tough for many of us writers. After all, many of us became writers because we were shy and withdrawing to start with and like to work alone. But do it. Even if it’s only by email.
Interview the right kinds of sources for your article. Your reading will help you identify who the right sources are; get the best sources you can. Interview enough sources to fill your article with researched content.
Find real things and write about them; don’t write in generalities. If everybody knows something, there is no need to write about it.
If readers can locate all your sources in 30 seconds on Google, you need better sources. Why should they read you, if they can read your sources that easily?
The simplest thing you bring to any article — and one of the most valuable — is this: You spend a long time finding out something so your readers can learn it quickly.
Provide that service, and readers will thank you.
5. Failing to write tightly edited and clear English prose
Write tightly edited English prose. Above all, be clear. Don’t even think of yourself as writing; think of yourself as conveying a topic to readers.
Anywhere your writing style intrudes, rein it in. Become transparent, so the subject of the article shines through, and readers see the content, not your writing.
Avoid all sorts of needless and unnecessary redundancy, and avoid cliches like the plague ;-).
Readers process metaphors subliminally. Control your metaphors, so they add up and contribute to the underlying theme.
See my Medium piece, “Metaphor Humor.”
When editing yourself, circle every use of “be” in all its forms (is, was, etc.). Challenge every one of them; look for verbs that precisely define the action and show the relationship.
Underline every researched fact or observed detail. Circle passages that contain few underlines. Replace them with writing based on research and filled with content.
Many people can toss off writing that is conversational and entertaining. Work for a style that is conversational but clear, correct, concise, and rich in content.
6. Failing to provide intelligent insight or fresh ideas
Provide insight into the topic of your article. Give readers something to think about. Tune into the deep themes your topic rests on. Float your topic on these underlying themes.
A good article is focused and specific, but it has a kind of radiance to it: It spreads out to connect to big things that matter deeply. Help readers find the universe in this particular grain of sand.
People may think they read for information, but, in the long run, they read to maintain, in their minds, a working model of the world and their place in it. Every factoid feeds this worldview — confirming it, challenging it, adding to it, presenting an anomaly, or telling it that it needs to change.
When you write, you help your readers create and navigate what they experience as reality. That’s deep. Few things are deeper. — Do it well.
7. Relying too much on the internet and other secondary print sources
Use the right sources for your topic:
- expert sources — people who have reason to know the topic in depth; in print and in person — and
- human exemplars — people who embody the topic and provide anecdotes about it.
Do not rely over-much on the internet and secondary sources (journalistic articles and popular books). Ground your knowledge is primary sources — experts, research studies (and critiques of those studies), scholarly books, long articles that are so definitive that they get reviewed and critiqued.
The critiques are important. There is hardly an important idea that does not arouse informed and often heated criticism. You need to find that.
Here’s why: If you go to the internet with a conclusion in mind, you can find support for it. If you return with the opposite conclusion in mind, you can find support for that, too! — If you are dealing with a major controversial topic that has serious implications for readers, you need to find the place where experts discuss, argue, and come to blows over it. That’s where you learn in depth about your topic.
Never use quotes someone else gathered (don’t quote quotes from someone else’s published article). — OK, I’ll back off a little here, because news organizations sometimes do this. But please notice that they always give full credit to the blearly fella who did all the work, hunted down the source, and got the quote. Don’t steal someone’s work, even if it’s their footwork.
When researching for an article, you will gather far more material than you use. Just save the leftovers for another time.
8. Committing too many grammar, punctuation and spelling errors
Any time someone corrects your writing, thank them, and learn how not to make that mistake again.
Submit work that is free of errors in grammar, usage, punctuation, and spelling. Make this a point of professional pride.
Alas, nobody’s perfect all the time. Typos sneak by, spell-check slips up, and the little demon of autocorrect laughs at our hopes.
9. Choosing stale or unoriginal article ideas
Find new ways to approach topics that bring them alive for readers. Ground your thinking in the things people care the most about.
Ask every day, “What do people really care about?” — “How can I enable them to re-visit what they care about, celebrate it, explore it, contemplate its mysteries, get better at it, share it with others?”
Isn’t it interesting how many of these problems come from not reading enough?
10. Failing to “featurize” material with good anecdotes, quotes, humor, etc.
Featurize your material with:
- good anecdotes (little stories that illustrate your point),
- quotes from your interviews,
- description of things you closely observed,
- humor when you couldn’t help yourself,
- the human dimension of the topic,
- a style that suits the topic and audience.
Some audiences need only the information itself — presented in the most efficient manner. They read for facts, not pleasure.
Others want prose that touches and delights them. You need to know what kind of readers you are writing for.
11. Failing to write a catchy or compelling lead
Write an effective opening. Try first to use an anecdote that you found — a short, focused incident that zooms readers in on the topic of the article.
Invent an opening only as a last resort. (E.g., “Imagine you are walking down a dark …”)
Write only one opening and make it work. If you find yourself starting the article more than once, stop. Go back, rewrite the opening, and start once. Only once.
Better yet, wait till you have finished the article. Then you’ll know how to write an opening — because now you know what the article is about!
12. Failing to check facts resulting in factual errors
Check your facts. Please! Be accurate. Get it right. Be proud that you do this. It matters.
Also check your facts for relevance: Use only those facts that are the most relevant to your topic.
What you do not write also helps. In addition to being correct, an article is valuable for all the potential distractions it leaves out. Especially the errors it leaves out.
13. Writing a weak or ineffective conclusion
Articles need to do more than stop; they need to end. Write an effective ending. Better yet, find an effective ending. In the course of your research, wait and watch for a good ending to show up, then grab it.
Try first to find an ending that circles back to your opening (remember the anecdote you opened with?) At any rate, find an ending that leaves readers focused on what mattered most in the article.
Beginning writers sometimes end with some random quote left over from their research notes. Don’t do that.
14. Pitching an idea to an editor without studying the puiblication
Before asking an editor to consider your idea or your manuscript, study the publication.
Analyze several articles. Learn who the audience is. Learn the publication’s personality. Learn what types of articles it publishes.
Read anything the editors have written about the publication, including any guidelines the post for writers.
Needless to say, if a publication has covered the same topic over and over in depth, don’t offer to write an introductory article on that topic. Editors report that this is, alas, not “needless to say,” because they get such queries from writers who have not studied the publication.
15. Omitting a nut-graph or billboard paragraph
After an indirect opening, immediately follow with a justifier (nut-graf, billboard, status statement, thesis statement).
See my Medium piece, “Article Writing: The Justifier.”
Even if you simplify it later, write the justifier with all four parts:
- Name your topic.
- Tell how important it is, how big; where possible, give numbers, dollar amounts.
- Cite an expert source, to build your credibility.
- Indicate what the article will cover. Draft this sentence to contain each bold subhead that follows in the body. If that’s awkward, smooth it out.
Revise your justifier last, after everything else in the article is complete.
After the indirect opening and justifier, go straight to the body of the article. Do not introduce the article a second time. Do not insert a quote from somebody at this point (a common habit among feature writers). Save that quote for the part of the body it illustrates.
16. Missing deadlines
Meet deadlines. Make this a point of professional pride. More generally, keep your promises. Be reliable. Do what you said you would do. And when.
Most important, if you have agreed to write a particular article, stay in communication with your editor. If you meet an unavoidable delay, let your editor know and perhaps negotiate a new deadline.
If you are writing a long, complex piece, let the editor know now and then how it is coming and that you are on track. Editors sleep better knowing such things. Help your editor sleep.
17. Writing too long or too short
It’s Goldilocks: Make the article long enough to go into the topic, but make every word count.
Once an article is more than about 500 words, it needs structure to hold it together. Organize your article to suit its topic.
For most service features, organize the body so it falls into clear sections that follow one another naturally. Label each section of the body with a simple, clear bold subhead.
If editors don’t want so many subheads, they can take them out. Meanwhile, they show editors exactly how you organized the article, and readers really appreciate the subheads, because they help readers skim to the parts that interest them. One of your jobs, curiously enough, is to write to be skimmed.
Use transitions and connectives to cue readers so they know just where they are, how they got there, and where they are going. Do this especially in early drafts. You can take some of them out later.
As you gain experience, you will learn how often (or seldom) to use transitions, connectives, and subheads. Until then, overuse them. They help you think through your article, and they help readers follow your thought.
18. Not properly citing sources or committing inadvertent plagiarism
Cite sources fully. If in doubt, over-cite your sources — even attach a list of sources to the piece. Anyone who is not interested can skip it.
An editor can easily shorten your citations, but it is tedious work for an editor to fill out inadequate citations.
Honor the work of others by acknowledging the source. Whenever you use anyone’s ideas, cite the source. Whenever you use anyone’s words, cite the source.
And hope that others will do the same for you.
Source of the 18 problems: David Sumner, Teaching Standards in Feature and Magazine Writing Classes, Paper presented at the AEJMC Convention, San Antonio, Texas, August 2005.
Gerald Grow is a retired journalism professor. More at longleaf.net.
